On 5 April 2016, a mutual ceasefire agreement - brokered by Russia that is a part of the Minsk Group - was reached between the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army together with the Armenian Armed Forces and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. The result came following four days of heavy fire between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in the internationally unrecognised state of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. There have been different reports about the severity of the clashes, as some report hundreds of people died, while others speak of tens of deaths. Both sides have also accused each other of causing the clashes. The conflict is the worst since the 1994 ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, also as different types of heavy weaponry were used.

Nagorno-Karabakh is legally still part of Azerbaijan but is de facto governed by an Armenian government, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is one of the long frozen conflicts – although now flaring up – in the region alongside other internationally unrecognised break-away regions like South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria.

Shootings still continued following the ceasefire and fears remain the conflict will conflict in a full-scale war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and could become the platform of a proxy war as other countries like the US, Russia, Turkey and Iran could be drawed in. Each power have varying interests in the region. Major powers like the US, Russia and the EU have sought to mediate. The Minsk Group that is composed of France, the US and Russia are still the official mediators and have tried long to find a solution. Russia however took the lead and brokered the ceasefire, establishing its dominance in the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have a ceasefire agreement since 1994 over the conflict, although the underlying dispute has never been resolved. Since 2012 there have been increasingly more incidents of violence. The regional balance of power has also changed significantly since the 1990s as Azerbaijan has become rich due to its oil, with its defense budget being twice the size of the total GDP of Armenia, while isolated and Russian dependent Armenia has stayed relatively poor.

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For more on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a short history of the internationally unrecognised state, click here and here.